The Origins of Lent

One of the false claims you'll see among people presenting conspiracy theories about where the Holidays came from is that Lent is when the Women weeped for Tammuz.

All the evidence shows that on or soon after the Summer Solstice was when that happened.  The Assyrians and Babylonians also used a lunar calendar and after the return from captivity the months of the Hebrew calendar took their names.  The women weeped for Tammuz is the month that was named after Tammuz, the fourth month.  Which on our calendar usually begins in late June or July.

The myth went that the Summer Solstice was when Tammuz went to the Underworld for 6 months and then at the Winter Solstice Ishtar takes his place.  Fitting the point I made before that the Pre-Christian Pagans did the opposite of the traditional Christian calendar, Solstices were for deaths and resurrections and sometimes conception at the same time, while Equinoxes were for births.

Adonis was a figure in Greek mythology probably based on the Tammuz cult spreading west.  The Adonia, a festival in which women weeped for him, was also in the Summer.

So where did Lent come from?  I have a few ideas.

Jewish tradition eventually started preparing for Passover a full month in advance, essentially starting it right after Purim.  (Interpretations for abstinence from leaven or yeast)  This included a custom of refraining from eating Matza in order to build an appetite for it before the Feast.

Deuteronomy 34:8 tells us that the children of Israel wept for Moses for 30 days after he died.  And the start of the Book of Joshua seems to give the impression a new year started right after that.

The traditional explanation is that Lent commemorates the 40 Days Jesus fast in the Wilderness.  And I don't think it's really based on claiming this is when those 40 days actually happened.  There is a Jewish tradition that one of Moses 40 days on Mount Sinai ended on Yom Kippur.  And other traditions that say Yom Kippur is when the events of Genesis 3 happened.  So placing Jesus Temptation on Yom Kippur fits nicely in my view.  There is also my hunch that Yom Kippur is when Michael will cast Satan out of Heaven.